The Mediterranean Cruise Chonicles: Part I (Spain)

Day I

13 June 2012, Hesperia Towers Hotel, Barcelona

I hadn't gotten nauseated on flights in a while, but recently--and for whatever reason--my motion sickness has been taking a horrible turn. Landing in Barcelona was one of those painfully long descents and a "sickie's" worst nightmare. And unfortunately, that package of "natural" anti-motion sickness tablets I bought at Heathrow in September 2010 somehow made their way out of my purse. (That's a nice way of saying my dumb arse removed them when I underwent the purse de-hoarding process prior to the trip.)

Following the flight and a 25-minute tardy shuttle service to the hotel, we actually arrived early to our check-in. I vegetated on the lobby's very low and awkwardly-designed couches while Mike explored the city afoot. I was nearly asleep when the voice of a Spaniard woke me saying, "Hello, sohrry, your room es ready."

Hesperia Towers is a five-star hotel, very close to the airport, and a seemingly popular place for business meetings and negotiations--needless to say, it had an extremely modern feel, both inside and out. (*Promotion alert*) Although the food was obnoxiously expensive (though, good quality), we got this great deal by booking it through Priceline using Mike's family's frequent flyer miles. I was always suspicious of the frequent flyer program, but I couldn't complain about two free nights in Barcelona.

Not much else can be said about this day. I was escorted to the room and fell asleep before Mike showed up and followed suit.

Day II

14 June 2012, Barcelona City Center

After surrendering to locating the invisible Metro, Mike and I discovered a free shuttle service to take into the City Center for exploring the wonderful city of Barcelona. On the way there we observed that, aside from a few tree breeds, Barcelona looked a lot like Southern California. Didn't we just fly 14 hours to leave California?

Also, aside from learning that the price of most non-alcoholic beverages in Barcelona--and many other parts of Europe--is an arm and a leg cheaper than water, the City Center was beautiful, clean, and full of peaceful tourists and residents admiring the day's clear skies. Through all the narrow streets we stumbled upon a gazillion churches before finding Barcelona's main "Catedral," whose entrance fee was six euros a piece (roughly $15 total).

We paid, entered, and well...yay, it was a "Catedral"--a really big building full of religious stuff, like holy water, which Mike touched, hoping his skin wouldn't burn off for being a non-believer. (It didn't, but the water might have fizzed a tad.) We tried to break into--er, open--the confession booths, and even found stairs leading up to the area above the altar. We went up, photographed the view, and on the way down I slipped very charmingly on my arse, thanks to my cheap sandals from Old Navy. (Some would say pay-back's a bitch for disturbing religious property.) And that slip was the first of many.

After that, we walked around a lot and ate. We found the edge of the city (the port), where there were military buildings and a giant lobster. The restaurant where we had lunch played American music videos, and I kept having Mike look up from his food so he could gag at the sight of Rihanna and the Black Eyed Peas.

Anyway, we had a nice time being slightly mischievous. We returned, slept a lot, and looked forward to embarking on our cruise the next day.